Friends, Rivals, Enemies
by attonranden
Summary: SI/OC Follow the story of two trainers as they start their journeys, ones dream is to become a Pokemon master the others is to become the greatest Pokemon ranger in the world. Both will face hardships on their road, make friends, battle rivals and hate enemies. Starts in Hoenn, uses Pokemon up to the Kalos region.


**Okay so I've been looking at my first attempt at a Pokémon story and I've decided that it's trash but instead of rebooting it or whatever I decided to just drop it and bring in this one instead. It's basically going to be the same as the first story just better written. Enjoy and please leave a review, reviews are love. Enjoy!**

**Chapter 1: Friends**

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Pokémon, dazzling and awe inspiring. The amazing creatures that thrive on this planet, in numbers virtually too massive to even begin to count, hundreds, thousands is the more likely total but numerous and varied to be sure.

Living together and reaching out to each other as friends and comrades. Helping and guiding one another.

People and Pokémon, competing together against others in the art of Pokémon battle hoping to one day to become champions.

And that is where this story begins, with one young man's dream of becoming the greatest Pokémon master that ever lived.

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(Champion Island, Main Stadium Battlefield)

"_And Xatu is down for the count people! That means that James only has one Pokémon left Folks. One last chance to defeat Jak's Raikou!"_ Jak smirked when the crowd went wild, his messy, spiky raven hair wafting from the shockwave of his Pokémon's last attack. Raikou even roared as Xatu was returned to its pokeball, the electric type casually moved back over to his trainer.

"You doing alright Rai?" Jak asked looking over Rai's various wounds, he had been forced to battle two extremely powerful Pokémon in quick succession and was going to have to battle another fairly soon.

"RAIKOU!" Jak smiled at Rai's second roar, the crowd and the very skies themselves following the Pokémon's example and roared back. The trainer looked up into the sky and strangely found a lot of comfort in the flashing black rain clouds. This was it; he was one victory away from earning the right to challenge the Pokémon champions of the world. "Kou?"

Jak glanced back at his Pokémon; Rai had noticed the subtle change in Jak's emotions and turned to look at his trainer. The trainer smiled brightly at his Pokémon, no words needed to be said as everything they wanted to share was passed between their eyes.

Rai understood his trainer, he knew Jak's wishes and desires and he would do all he could to see them come to fruition. Jak didn't want to just be a Pokémon master; he wanted to be _the _master. The world's greatest Pokémon master, the world's greatest Pokémon trainer, he wanted to prove to the world that he could make a Pokémon reach their potential like no one else.

Jak understood his Pokémon, he knew Rai's wishes and desires, he knew all his Pokémon's wishes and desires. Every one of his Pokémon hated losing, they didn't want to just be strong, they wanted to be the strongest, the _best_. His Pokémon were all with him because they wanted to battle, to fight, to prove that they were the strongest.

They were proud to be his Pokémon and Jak was proud to be their trainer. They were friends, family.

And that's what passed between trainer and Pokémon, pride and a will of fire that burned so brightly that others could see it in their eyes. A will to never give up, to never lose.

An eternity seemed to pass as trainer and Pokémon looked at each other but both were snapped back to reality when the announcer shouted out their opponent's next Pokémon.

"_And it's Torterra folks!"_ Again the crowd screamed at the simple declaration clearly caught up with the excitement of the final battle of the tournament. James smirked at him from across the battle field, the other trainer must have been thinking that Rai was tired from the two previous battles and a Pokémon like Torterra that had a type advantage gave him a clear win. _"Will James's Torterra finally be able to bring Raikou down, or will Jak pull another victory out of his hat with a truly legendary Pokémon!" _

Jak just shook his head the fact that it was a Torterra, type advantage or not, pretty much made his own victory a certainty. Raikou roared at the Grass/Ground type and got a fairly intimidating cry back. The Pokémon's greeting of each other signalled the beginning of the match as the ref called the battle to begin.

"Torterra use earthquake," James took the first move, hoping to win a quick victory with the powerful ground type move. Torterra responded quickly and reared up to stomp its feet on the ground but got a nasty surprise when it tried to stomp.

"Extreme speed." Knowing that he had to prevent what would be a super effective attack Jak ordered an attack of his own and Rai didn't disappoint. Crossing the field in the blink of an eye with the help of his fastest move Rai slammed into Torterra, knocking the Pokémon clear across the field and back towards his trainer.

"If you think Rai's gotten any slower because of a little damage then you're wrong," Jak called across the field, the microphones near his trainer box picking up his soft calmly spoken words and sending them across the field towards his opponent. "A move that slow will never hit us."

James ground his teeth at the taunt, he had been so close to wiping this kid off of the map and then this Raikou comes along and ruins everything.

"Torterra, leaf storm!" Caught off guard by the sudden attack and still trying to stop his forward motion from his extreme speed Rai took a direct hit from the leaf storm and got thrown back towards his side of the field. Jak frowned; Torterra's power was clear from that attack.

"That's probably his starter Pokémon," Jak mumbled as Torterra got back to his feet, Rai growled at the grass/ground while his trainer thought. "We're not beating him in a contest of power, that's for sure." Legendary or not, Raikou weren't power houses like Entei or some of the other legendries, Rai was a creature of speed. _'Although,'_ Jak thought looking up at the stormy sky, if they could find an opening maybe, just maybe they could end it in one go.

"Be ready Rai, you can't get hit again," Jak ordered, if his idea was going to work, every bit of strength that Rai had left would be needed. Jak could see James talking quietly to Torterra and knew that the other trainer was coming up with a plan of his own. It was only in the lull of their battle that Jak noticed how quiet it was, as he looked around he saw that there wasn't a single person talking, not even the announcer.

The lull was short lived though.

"Torterra, frenzy plant!"

"Don't let a single attack hit, we need an opening!"

The battle quickly fell into a frantic routine, James's Torterra tried desperately to hit Rai with every attack in its arsenal only to come up short each and every time, and every time James tried to use a ground type move Jak struck back with Rai's extreme speed, keeping Torterra from striking. Both trainers were looking for an opening as both of their Pokémon were getting exhausted from the constant attacks but it was only when Jak spotted a bright beam of sunlight coming through the clouds that he realised that he would have to take a gamble.

"Damn it we're going to run out of stamina first," _'Not to mention Torterra's growth ability has yet to kick in, he's still got a second wind coming.'_ "Rai, thunderbolt."

"_And Jak calls for an electric type move, is he getting desperate?"_ Jak could have throttled the announcer just then but knew that he was in fact getting desperate. Rai and Toterra were locked in a stale mate and he needed a way to break it.

Rai attacked without hesitation though, the Pokémon trusted his trainer to have a plan. Jak frowned as the attack just passed harmlessly through Torterra and into the ground. He hadn't expected the attack to do any damage but he had hoped that the grounding process would take a bit longer; it just pushed the point that Rai was getting tired home.

"Use charge." James looked across the field at his opponent like he had just grown another head but Jak didn't care Rai would need the extra juice for what he had planned.

"Are you cracking up under the pressure kid?" James taunted, seemingly content to let Rai charge himself up for what could only be a useless electric type attack. "Torterra is completely resistant against electric type attacks." Jak didn't respond, at least not until Rai let the stadium know that he was finished by roaring. The storm clouds were once again thick and filled with lightning, not a single ray of sunlight peeking through.

"Only while he's on the ground," Jak smirked getting a confused look from James before Rai let a tremendous bolt of lightning rip from his body straight into the clouds. The audience gasped in awe at the sheer size of the lightning bolt but James looked afraid as if he had just figured something out.

"Torterra don't get hit by that?"

"_What is Jak planning? As many of you know, Torterra is completely resistant to electric type attacks no matter the size._" Jak just smirked at that comment, it was actually a pretty common misconception. Any Pokémon could be harmed by electric type attacks, even pure ground types; you just had to take away their ability to ground themselves. Jak's father taught him that.

To Jak's pleasure and James's dismay the thunder attack scored a direct hit on Torterra, and even though the duel type Pokémon was prepared for the electric type attack it still struggled because of the sheer amount of electricity flowing through his body and into the stadium floor. It only got worse for James and Torterra though.

"Hyper beam!" Looking at Rai with fear, Torterra saw the bright beam of energy leave the legendry's mouth and head straight for him.

"Jump you get burned, stay you get burned, what you gonna do?" Jak smirked and grinned when both happened. The hyper beam hit dead on and knocked Torterra away from the ground, leaving the thunder attack with nowhere to go but into Torterra, who cried out in pain as the electric type attack coursed through his body. "Now finish it, hit Torterra with Giga impact!"

Jak could barely believe it, he was going to win. Looking at Rai as the Pokémon charged forward, the purple/gold stream of power generated from Giga impact surrounding him like a protective cloak, Jak knew that this was the end, Torterra wouldn't be able to get back up after all of that punishment. He was going to win.

'…_Jak.'_

He was going to win the champions league.

'_Jak, wake up.'_

It was so close.

'_**JAK!'**_

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(Little Root town harbour)

Jak groaned as his mother's voice cut through his dream, damn it he didn't want to wake up, he was having such a good dream! Rolling away from the voice Jak tried to go back to sleep and his dream of winning the champions tournament, he was so close this time as well.

"Jak, we're here…. Wake up."

"Five more minutes," Jak could hear his mother sigh before something wet brushed up against his cheek. Cracking open an eye Jak stared sleepily at the Jolteon on his lap that had just licked him. "That's gross Jolt." In response the Jolteon just yapped at him and proceeded to keep licking him until Jak batted the Pokémon's muzzle away from his face. "Alright I'm awake."

The sixteen year old yawned widely and stretched out his sore muscles after saying hello to his mother. Both were currently sat reclined in the lounge area of a large cruise ship that was taking them from the Kanto region to the Hoenn region but as Jak looked out the large window near him he saw what must have been the Little Root harbour fast approaching, meaning that they had arrived.

The soon to be trainer caught sight of his reflection in the window and couldn't help but examine himself, he wasn't vain or anything like that but he was a little self-conscious when it came to his looks and attire. He was fairly fit thanks to an active lifestyle but nothing to brag about. He preferred to keep things simple with a plain black t-shirt and dark cargo trousers, he had a pair of walking boots on that he refused to swap out for a new pair despite how ragged they were getting. The teenager also had a pair of black fingerless gloves sat on the arm of his chair. As he looked himself over Jak wondered if he classed as a Goth because of all the black and dark clothes that he wore, not to mention his naturally raven hair but discarded the thought, he really didn't care about social stereotypes anyhow, he looked alright which was all that mattered.

Moving his chair back to the upright position Jak scratched behind Jolt's ears before asking the electric type to get out of his lap, partly to stretch his tired muscles and partly to get the feeling back into them. Having a twenty five kilo Pokémon resting on your legs for a good couple of hours really wasn't a very good idea.

Moving over to the window, with Jolt in tow, Jak looked out over Little Root as he popped his spine back into place. He was actually surprised by what he saw, when someone said town to him, he thought about places like Pallet town or Twin Leaf, small places with a couple of dozen rural houses at most. Little Root certainly didn't match that description, how anyone could call a place with such modern buildings and a few skyscrapers a town he didn't know.

"So this is where we're going to be living from now on," Jak muttered, yawning again before looking down at Jolt who, despite being far more experienced with traveling than Jak, seemed just as interested in Little Root. "Well your home anyway, I'll be starting my journey in another few days." The soon to be trainer couldn't help but grin at that thought. If he was being honest with himself then he was really stoked to be in the Hoenn region as it was the only place that the legendary lightning Pokémon Raikou had been sighted. He had made a foolish, childish promise to his dad when he was younger to catch a Raikou and bring it home.

The sound of the cruises horn pulled Jak away from his thoughts of capturing legendries though and brought him back to reality, he needed to get a starter Pokémon first and to do that he needed to go meet the professor of the Hoenn region but before that he had to help his mother get settled into their new home. _'There's always something else to do.'_ Jak thought with a sigh as he grabbed his bag and helped his mom drag hers. Jolt was being particularly unhelpful as he had decided to sit himself down of one of their suitcases; Jak could have sworn he saw a grin on the electric types muzzle as Jolt refused to budge. That was until the Pokémon was picked up by his mother and carried out of the lounge in an embarrassing fashion.

"Serves you right," Jak chuckled as Jolt looked to him to save the Pokémon from his mother's affection. Jolt was a battler through and through he hated any and all kinds of public affection aside from the occasional ear scratch. It was only when the trio were making their way down the ramp of the cruise ship that Jak realised that he had no idea how they were getting to their new house. "Err mom?"

"I have a friend that's going to pick us up honey," Ann replied with a smile as she already knew what her son wanted to say. Jak just blinked at his mother and wished that she wouldn't do that, it freaked him out enough when she did it to his dad. "He should already be here waiting for us." Glancing at his mom Jak looked around the departure point, they could easily see the car park past the check in station but Jak didn't recognise anyone.

"Maybe you should give him a ring?" Jak suggested as he hefted their suitcases onto the scanner and wandered through a scanner himself. While the border control was very lax in most regions everyone entering or leaving the region had to have a full body scan and have their luggage scanned for contraband and other things. The whole process only took a few minutes however so Jak, Jolt and his mother were all in the car park looking around while Ann had her phone out and pressed to her ear.

Jak looked up as his mother sighed with frustration before she suddenly smiled and gestured behind her son. Racing towards the docks at a speed that had to be against the law was a dark green SUV. Jak had to resist the urge to start running as the vehicle came hurtling towards them and pulled up to a sudden stop just a few feet away.

"Birch!" Ann laughed going around and hugging the bigger man as soon as he got out of the car, she hadn't seen her friend in such a long time.

"Annie!" Birch hugged Jak's mother back with just as much vigour as she hugged him before his eyes settled on Jak who was trying to look like he wasn't with either of them. "And this must be the son that I've heard so much about." Birch quickly let go of Jak's mother and came over to shake his hand. "Nice grip." The professor grinned, clapping Jak on the back and practically dragging him into the SUV. "Now come on time's a wasting!" Neither could protest as Birch quickly deposited them and their luggage into the SUV and started driving away from the docks.

The moment the man put his foot on the gas Jak was clinging on for dear life, Birch was INSANE! The car journey started in relative silence as Birch focused on 'driving' and Jak and Ann focused on keeping their heads from impacting the roof. Jolt had been returned to his pokeball after the first few seconds of the car journey, Jak almost wished that he could be put in one as well.

"Oh honey I never mentioned that Birch will be the one giving you your starter Pokémon." Now that caught Jak's attention, unfortunately it also caused Jak to loosen his grip on the door and bounce as Birch drove over a bump, not that the man seemed to notice what his erratic driving was doing.

"That's right Jak, I am the Pokémon professor for this region after all," Birch laughed swerving around a corner with enough speed for Jak to be pressed against the door. Where was Officer Jenny when she was needed? "Anyway, there's been a bit of an issue with that now that your mother mentions it."

"Issue?" Jak grunted, actually considering bailing from the vehicle and into moving traffic to escape, it had to be safer than staying.

"Yes, you see there were only a handful of trainers that applied for Pokémon this year, usually we have dozens but for the past few years there have barely even been ten new trainers a year," Jak frowned at that bit of information. Ten a year, that couldn't be right could it? Back home in Sinnoh there were dozens of kids in every city waiting for their chance to become Pokémon trainers. Thinking along the same lines Jak's mother asked why there were so few when they stopped at a red light.

"It's not from a sudden lack of interest from the kids," Birch clarified ignoring the look he got from Jak at the kid comment. "I checked the census from about sixteen years ago and there was a five year gap where the birth rate in Hoenn dropped by a staggering amount."

"That was when the Thousand year war began again and ended wasn't it?" Ann asked putting two and two together; she had actually had Jak after his father had returned from the war, probably like a lot of other people if she thought about it.

"Not just the war," Birch said actually driving a little more calmly as he spoke. "Hoenn went through a whole host of natural disasters around the same time. It makes sense when you think about it." Jak looked between the adults and frowned, he like everybody else his age had been taught about the thousand year war as it was still very recent but Jak had never thought that it would affect somewhere like Hoenn so drastically. They were so far away from The North Eastern Wilderness and what had been the Ancient Almari Empire that Jak wondered exactly how badly somewhere like Hoenn could have been affected by the war.

It was as he was thinking about it that Jak noticed the SUV pulling out of Little Root and heading further inland.

"Little Root is divided into two settlements," Birch explained when Jak asked why they were leaving the town. "The main part has been built up around the docks, obviously because of all the import but the rest of Little Root is roughly scattered a mile or so away from the harbour. Both my lab and your house are part of it, we're kind of our own little village away from Little Root but we're still classed as part of the town."

It was only another few minutes before they started seeing houses in the distant and children with Pokémon playing in the fields beside the road but Jak's mind was still on the war that had ended just under a year before he was born. His father refused to speak about it whenever Jak asked, even when they were learning about it in school. All he would say on the subject was that it wasn't something Jak should learn too much about and that they would be much better off learning how to prevent another war. The thousand year war was the first war to occur in hundreds of years and as such was a huge historical subject, despite the fact that it was still so recent.

"Honey," Jak stopped looking out of the window to glance at his mother. She was just smiling at him like she knew what he was thinking about. "Professor Birch was trying to explain about the shortage of Pokémon at his lab."

"What?!" Jak shouted fearing the worst, if he couldn't get a starter Pokémon then he couldn't really start his journey, Jolt was always an option of course but he was Jak's father's Pokémon so the young trainer in waiting didn't feel right using a clearly experienced Pokémon. That and Jolt was the only company that his mother was going to have around the new house when he left on his journey. He didn't feel right leaving her alone in a new house and new town.

"Don't worry I've been on the issue ever since I realised there was one," Birch reassured Jak, he had actually been in a bit of a panic himself over the whole issue but was able to find a solution thanks to the ranger station in northern Hoenn. "There are a trio of appropriate starters on their way to the lab as we speak. They should be arriving any day now."

Breathing a sigh of relief Jak slumped back into his chair and took to looking out of the window again. For one frightful moment he was having delusions of never being able to start his journey. If push came to shove he could just use Jolt until he had captured a couple of wild Pokémon and go from there but now that wouldn't be an issue. He just had to wait some more, _'There's always something.'_

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"This is our house?" Jak asked, marvelling at the beautifully crafted wooden building in front of him. With his Father being a gym leader Jak had always lived in an extension of the gym building itself, which while awesome because of the constant stream of Pokémon that he saw was rather basic even with both of his parents earning sizable wages from their jobs. They were actually moving out here because of Ann's job, she was a Pokémon researcher just like Birch and the legendary Professor Oak but she had to put her career on hold because of Jak and the responsibilities that came with raising him, something the teen felt a little guilty about despite being at absolutely no fault what so ever. Going back to the house though, the gym extension that he had lived in was one a single floor, this house was two or three stories and according to professor Birch had a basement as well. The thought of living here made Jak giddy, he couldn't wait to pick out a room and unpack what he had brought with him. Most of his mother's things were being shipped over at a later date but Jak had packed what he thought he would need for his journey and nothing else. It didn't make any sense to him to get all set up here when he planned to leave for his journey a few days after arriving at the latest. Now though with all the delays he wished that he had packed more.

The interior of the house didn't disappoint the outside, stepping through the front door Jak was greeted by a set of stairs that led up to the first floor, to his left was a large sitting area with a pair of sofas and a reclining chair all stationed around a large coffee table, the room to the right of the entrance hall was disturbingly empty though.

"The old owners said that it was a child's play room," Ann explained as she ran a finger over a windowsill and frowned, not only the windowsills but the wooden stair banisters had a thick layer of dust over them as well. "Needs a good clean." Further exploration led Jak to finding the kitchen behind the sitting room and a dining table and chairs behind the empty play room, the entrance to the basement was built into the stairs.

The teenager left that though and headed upstairs after letting Jolt out of his pokeball, the electric type immediately grew to dislike the thick dust as he sneezed after trying to sniff at it in his curiosity. Despite that though the Pokémon followed Jak upstairs and started exploring the rooms with his trainer's son. The first floor was a little disappointing for the upcoming trainer, through Jak wasn't really sure what he had been expecting, there were two bedrooms on the kitchen and sitting room side of the house, both with small on suite bathrooms. The other side however had a master bedroom with a large fully furnished on suite and another bathroom that had a remarkably large shower that Jak couldn't help but grin at the thought of using. He knew that he was still a kid at heart but that thought didn't bother him one bit.

The second floor of the house was really just a very large attic, the entire floor was empty and only had one small window and one flickering light working. Jak couldn't help the small grin playing at his lips as he walked into the shadowy room, he had always been a bit of an adrenaline junkie and had always had an over active imagination. He had to admit though the latter had always gotten him into more trouble that he would have liked as a kid. Jolt walked straight into the attic and began sniffing around relived by the lack of dust as Jak walked over to the centre of the room where the flickering light bulb was, he reached up and pulled the light chain chuckling when the light turned off and Jolt gave a surprised yelp at being plunged into sudden darkness.

"I'm just messing with you Jolt," Jak laughed as he switched the light back on and froze. In the corner of his eye he saw Jolt look over at his sudden stop and saw the Pokémon tense up and his fur stand straight as a small Jolt of electricity ran across his back. Floating not an inch away from the front of Jak's face was a gastly. Before the ghost type or human could utter a word however Jolt lunged suddenly fearing for his friend, Gastly's weren't known for being violent but their bodies were made up of over 90% gases and they were highly toxic.

Obviously not expecting the attack gastly was hit by an electrified tackle and set flying across the room. Happy that he now had himself between the potentially harmful Pokémon and his friend, Jolt started barking at it breaking Jak out of his momentary trance. He really wasn't sure how to react, he really didn't like the way that Jolt had suddenly attacked the ghost type but he had to admit that he had a very sudden bout of light headedness once he realised that the gastly was there.

Shaking his head to clear that thought Jak looked back at the gastly who was now, quite timidly Jak thought, talking back to Jolt who still looked quite agitated about this whole situation. Jak really wasn't sure what to do, he didn't particularly want to kick gastly out if the Pokémon had made the house or attic its home but at the same time he wasn't sure inviting an unknown Pokémon to stay was such a good idea. Actually he was certain that it was a bad one.

Just as he came to that conclusion the gastly burst into tears and quite rapidly flew out of the attic and down the stairs.

"What did you say?" Jolt just looked up at the trainer and gave his best attempt at a shrug. Decided that it would be a good idea to tell his mother Jak wandered back downstairs to find his mother and professor Birch looking rather confused at each other. "What's up?"

"A rather distraught gastly just flew into the basement," Ann fixed her son a look that he just knew meant that he was in trouble. "Did you try and kick it out?"

"I didn't do anything," Jak defended himself, he wasn't sure why he felt so guilty all of a sudden either. Needing an escape from his mother's gaze Jak pointed at the electric type at his feet. "Jolt did all the talking." Wandering away from his childhood friend to follow professor Birch to the basement Jak didn't dare look back at Jolt as his mother was now looking at the Pokémon, he was certain that he heard him mutter traitor despite the Pokémon not being able to say a word of English.

"Gastlys do like to occupy abandoned and quiet houses," Birch muttered, more to himself than to Jak as the professor looked down the stairs that led to the basement. "Still it's odd that the gastly was alone."

"How do you know that it's alone?" Jak asked, making Birch realise that he was actually listening.

"Gastlys tend to live with others of their kind and their evolved versions, like most other Pokémon really but they are more particular not letting another type of Pokémon into their group, ever," Jak absorbed the information, when it came to Pokémon he was the human equivalent to a sponge. "They are all notorious tricksters as well, if there was more than one I would think that a haunter or gengar would be messing with the lights and trying to scare us away for upsetting one of their youngsters."

"He was quite upset by whatever Jolt said to him," Jak admitted looking down into the basement and feeling very guilty all of a sudden, if gastly was all alone he would feel terrible about kicking him out of the house, a group not so much but one Pokémon, that was just cruel. Heaving a sigh Jak started walking down into the basement ignoring the surprised sound that came from professor birch as he looked around the surprising well lit room. Gastly wasn't hard to find because he was still sobbing and Jak felt his heart go out to the ghost type as he saw it facing a corner. "Hey little guy."

Gastly's gaze instantly snapped to him and a look of Jak could only think to describe as panic flicked across the Pokémon's… face? Jak wasn't really sure if face counted considering that gastly was a _ball___of gas with eyes and a mouth. Either way it looked panicked and Jak smiled as kindly as he could moving to sit down a few feet away from the ghost as he tried to think what to say.

"So… on your own then?" He felt like slapping himself the moment he said it, great way to start the conversation. Gastly just looked down at the floor and sobbed quietly to itself at the comment only looking up when Jak groaned. "I'm sorry I didn't mean it like that." Sighing to himself, the human felt like such a tool. "Listen, I don't know what Jolt said to you upstairs but we're not going to just throw you out of the house or anything."

Gastly actually looked, dare Jak think it, hopeful at that comment and Jak felt himself smiling at the Pokémon. "If this is your home then you're welcome to stay as long as you want." When gastly started rushing towards Jak happily the trainer to be held up a hand stopping the ghost in its tracks. "Some ground rules though, gastly are known for being tricksters and for pulling pranks on humans and Pokémon alike. There will be none of that, understood." When gastly nodded at him Jak smiled again and laughed when gastly floated around him happily.

"What did you say?" Ann asked when Jak came back up the stairs with a happy gastly in tow with him, the ghost looked at jolt nervously but after a sharp look from his trainers wife Jolt tried to play nice with the wild Pokémon.

"I said he could stay as long as he behaves," Jak said chucking when gastly floated behind him at the sight of Jak's mother and professor Birch, it didn't take very long though before it was floating around Ann happily as well however. The ghost was really just craving some affection which Ann gave out in spades to Pokémon.

"Wish she treated me like that when we first met," Birch grumbled as he helped Jak get the small amount of luggage from the SUV and put it down in the entrance hallway. "I tried to politely introduce myself at a researcher's conference and almost got my head bitten off." Jak glanced at the man and wondered if that was true but realised that he didn't care and he was still exhausted from all the traveling that he had done the past couple of days so with quick goodbyes and good nights to his mother, gastly and Birch he took himself off to the room that he had claimed as his own.

He stripped the dusty sheets off of his bed and tossed them down the stairs for his mother to deal with. Apparently the house had a laundry room in the basement but Jak didn't care as pulled out his sleeping bag and a fresh pillow from his luggage and set himself up on the soft mattress. After wishing Jolt goodnight and practically passing out Jak wondered if he would have another dream about winning the champions league.

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When Jak woke up the next morning he was shook awake by his mother and told to get ready. She had acquired a set of cleaning supplies from Birch and was set on making the house spotless before the day was out. Needless to say Jak spent most of his morning wishing for a face mask as the dust and thick strong scent of bleach flooded the house after a few hours, it got so bad that Jak gave up entirely and went to sit outside with his laptop, intent of researching the Hoenn regional pokedex and places of import. Jolt set his head in Jak's lap and watched him flick through the images of various Pokémon, he couldn't stand the smell of the house any more than his human friend could and found watching Jak to be quite interesting. Jolt gave a cry every so often when he saw a Pokémon that he recognised or had fought before much to Jak's amusement as the human tried to guess why Jolt was making noise.

Jak paused when he came to a map of the Hoenn region however and just spend some time staring at it, trying to come up with a route to take around the region. It made sense to head to Petalburg first as it was the closest city with a Gym and if he didn't stick to the roads he would have to pass through the Petalburg woods, which meant that he could hopefully get some training in before even reaching the city. Thinking about training made Jak want to call his dad, partly to let him know what the house was like and partly to talk about training, he had come up with a few ideas since he and his mom had left Sinnoh but he wanted to get his old man's opinion on them before he actually started using them, not that he could really do that until he got his starter.

"There's always something," Jak sighed going back to his research when he noticed someone walking in front of the house. When Jak looked up at the stranger he was surprised to see someone that had to have been around his age before him, arms carrying a heavy looking backpack. Not really knowing what to do as Jak had never really had many friends and none of his age Jak mealy nodded and gave a simple 'hey' to the other teenager.

"Hey, you just move in?" The stranger asked obviously taking the greeting as an invitation to walk over to Jak and continue conversation. Jak would have sighed if a thought hadn't stuck in his head all of a sudden, was this guy waiting for a Pokémon as well?

"Yeah, me and my mom just got here yesterday," Jak said as he closed his laptop and stood up before offering a hand to the still unidentified teen. Jak took the opportunity to look him over though. Whoever he was he was almost the exact same height as Jak just a tiny bit shorter, he had short dark brown hair, green eyes and looked to be fairly slim. He was wearing a worn pair of jeans with a plain navy blue t-shirt and what were originally white trainers were now greyed from age, not at all unlike Jak's own walking boots. "My names Jak."

"Tom, but everyone calls me Nekrews," Nekrews said with a sheepish smile that made Jak blink.

"How do you go from Tom to Nekrews?" Jak wondered aloud sitting back down and against the house when Nekrews set his bag down and sat down next to it.

"My surname is Nekrews, I'm from Unova originally, anyway there are like three or four other Tom's around that are our age, you're what sixteen?" Nekrews asked getting a nod from Jak, he was actually sixteen and a half but it felt childish to point it out. "Yeah there were only three other people around here that are our age, one left to start his Pokémon journey and the other two you don't want to meet." Nekrews noticed the look that Jak gave him and just waved it off. "Don't ask. Anyway, yeah, there are a bunch of other Tom's so to keep everything from getting confusing we just started calling everyone by their surnames. Nekrews has just kind of stuck with me."

"Cool," Jak wondered just how many friends Nekrews had and couldn't stop the small stab of jealousy that accompanied the thought. He could count the number of human friends that he had on one hand and none of those were particularly good friends either. Being the gym leader's son had its own advantages and disadvantages, his sister had warned him about it when he was old enough to start to understand that but it still hurt from time to time.

"What's yours?" Jak looked up at Nekrews again at the question, lost in his own train of thought for a moment.

"Huh?"

Your surname?"

"Oh Forster."

"You're looking at me like I should know that name," Jak blinked and smiled to try and cover up his embarrassment despite the fact that he could feel the blood rushing to his face. "You famous or something?"

"No, no," Jak laughed scratching the back of his head. "I'm from Sinnoh, that's where we've come from but my dad is the Sunyshore city gym leader." Jak watched Nekrews's face for any kind of reaction but aside from a little surprise he was glad to see nothing cross the other teen's face, he hated being treated special but at the same time he couldn't help but blab it about, Jak had long ago come to terms with being a glutton for punishment. "I guess I just got used to everyone knowing who I was, my dad's famous in Sunyshore."

"And you're expecting me to fall head over heels for you or something?" Nekrews asked sounding more than a little hostile as he did; Jak guessed that the other teen knew the type that clearly did expect to be treated differently because of their names or parents.

"Yeah but not in the way that you think, I hate being treated different because of it," Nekrews raised an eyebrow at that remark but didn't say anything as Jak sighed and leaned back against the house. "I'm so proud of being a gym leaders son, I love saying that my dad is a gym leader but then people used to just… like collapse at my feet."

Nekrews gave Jak a look as if to say 'really?' which made the soon to be trainer blush a little.

"Well not quite that dramatic but they all started with the, 'Sirs' and being overly polite and shoving things on me. You know I came home from the market once with like four boxes of free oran berries and potions when I only wanted one because Jolt here hurt himself."

"Who's Jolt?" Jak blinked as he looked around; suddenly realising that Jolt was nowhere to be seen.

"He's my dad's Jolteon; he was sat with me while I was looking at stuff but… Huh where did he go?" It wasn't like Jolt to wander off and Jak was amazed that he hadn't noticed. Shrugging Jak looked back to Nekrews and asked the question that was really on his mind. "So are you waiting for a Pokémon from Professor Birch as well?" Nekrews blinked at the question before shaking his head.

"What do you mean?"

"Well now that my mum and I are finally here I can start my Pokémon journey but Birch had a problem with the Pokémon or something I dunno." Jak shrugged struggling to remember exactly why Birch said that there was an issue with the Pokémon. "Anyway, he had to call up to some ranger station and ask them to send some down to him." Jak missed the way that Nekrews's eyes lit up at the mention of rangers and frowned in thought. "I didn't think rangers kept captive Pokémon though."

"They don't," Nekrews declared suddenly sounding very enthusiastic, Jak noticed worship when he saw it and blinked. "They use specialised Capture stylers that make Pokémon temporarily help them they don't capture Pokémon like trainers do." Nekrews noticed Jak smirking at him and stopped before he went of any further about the rangers. "What?"

"You want to be a ranger don't you?"

"Yeah I think they're so cool, one came to visit Professor Birch once and gave us all a display and talked about some of the things that he had done."

"Okay… so how exactly does one get around to being one?" Jak asked all a trainer had to do was go register with an appointed official, like a Pokémon professor, and they became a trainer, it was as simple as that. He had no idea how to go about sighing up to become a Pokémon ranger, could you even sign up, did you have to take a class, was there a _school_? Jak shivered at the thought of going back to school, never again.

"Well you can get nominated by another ranger or you can apply to the ranger school in Almia." Nekrews explained getting Jak to frown he was fairly sure that Almia was southwest of Sinnoh. "Even if you get nominated you still have to go to the school but you get a free pass with nomination, it's really hard to get into otherwise."

"You tried?" Jak asked suddenly he wanted to do some research, he didn't like not knowing things and rangers seemed like a big deal here, or at least they were clearly a big deal to Nekrews. When said teen shook his head Jak frowned, was he afraid of rejection?

"You have to be eighteen to apply, I'm only sixteen." Nekrews said sighing heavily, Jak couldn't help but sympathise if someone told him that he had to wait another year and a half before he could become a trainer he'd be a bit down in the dumps. Before Jak could say anything through Jolt suddenly appeared in his line of vision carrying a large paper bag in his mouth. "That Jolt?"

"Yeah," Jak said, opening the bag to find freshly baked cookies inside, it was only then that he caught the aroma of his mother's cooking coming from the kitchen. "Guess she finished cleaning." Jak chuckled offering Nekrews a cookie with a smile.

The two kept talking for a little while longer, even playing with Jolt and gastly for a little while until Nekrews glanced at his watch and made his goodbyes.

"You got anything planned for tomorrow?" Nekrews asked as he was leaving, heavy bag once again in hand.

"No why?"

"Well do you want me to show you some cool spots and stuff tomorrow then?"

"Yeah that would be great."

"Bye dude." Nekrews called running down the dirt street with a wide grin on his face as Jak smiled and stepped back inside, sighing when he mother shoved a duster in his hand again.

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